Noel Home: Tablecloth Set – Fringed Underlay with Pom-Pom Overlay

Editor: Liz Johnson

Monday, 29 November 2010 9:00

The experts always recommend layers when dressing for winter; we felt this advice should extend to winter table top dressing as well. Our holiday tablecloth is actually two layers: a plain fringed underlay and a patterned flat overlay with pretty dangling pom-poms as corner accents. With the underlay made out of a neutral fabric in a simple fringed design, you can reuse it with a new overlay for a new season or holiday.

EIGHT approximately 2½" pom-poms: we used a soft white NOTE: We made our own using a Clover Pom Pom Maker

All purpose thread: we used deep red

See-through ruler or yardstick

Fabric pen, pencil or chalk

Iron and ironing board

Scissors or rotary cutter and mat

Straight pins

Getting Started

The underlay is designed to have a 4" drop all around, so you need a piece of fabric that is the size of your table plus 8". For our 97" x 40" table that meant a piece 105" x 48".

The overlay is designed to sit flat on the table top with an approximate 1" reveal of the underlay showing all around. Subtract 2" from both measurements (1" for each side) to get your finished size. For our table that final measurement should be 95" x 38". We use a 3/4" double turn hem to finish the underlay. Therefore, you need to add back 1½" to all sides to account for the hem or 3" total to both the finished width and length. In our sample, that means 95" + 3" x 38" + 3" = 98" x 41".

From the fabric for your underlay (linen in our sample), figure your dimensions and cut cut ONE rectangle. We cut one rectangle 105" x 48". Because we are fringing the underlay, cut on-grain and keep all your edges as straight and true as possible.

From the fabric for your overlay (Floral Christmas Hollyvine in our sample), figure your dimensions and cut ONE rectangle. We cut one rectangle 98" x 41".

Pom-poms

We used a straight pom hanger for this project. On some of our other Noel Home projects, such as our Stockings and Chair Covers, we used a fancy little twisted cord technique for the pom hangers. This would certainly work for this project as well. If you are a knitter, you'll recognize this easy technique right away. If not, there are lots of instructions online, including this video from Knitting at KNoon.

For each of our pom-pom pairs, we made one pom hanger approximately 8" and the other approximately 6".

At Your Sewing Machine & Ironing Board

Fringing the underlay

Pull a single thread from one edge. To start the thread, you can use a pin to pick out the fiber until you have enough to grab and pull. Pull gently.

Keep pulling one thread at a time until you have about 3/4" of fringe.

Repeat the process to fringe all the edges. It's a bit painstaking, but I like to think of it as patience-therapy. Breath, pull, breath, pull...

Once you've fringed all four sides, double-check and trim as needed to even up all the edges to a consistent length of 3/4".

Stitch along the edge of the fringe all the way around to secure and prevent further raveling.

Press well.

Creating the overlay

Because we have the underlay, this overlay does not need a lining, just a simple hem.

Place a pair of pom-poms (one 8" and one 6") at each corner. To do this, unfold your double-turned hem to a single-turned hem, line up the pom-pom tails (each pom has two tails), and slide them into the hem.

Slide one pom on one side of the corner and one pom on the other side so the tails criss-cross each other at a right angle. Refold the hem to cover the ends. Pin in place.

Topstitch close to the folded edge all around tablecloth hem, making sure to backtack over each of the pom-pom tails, to insure they are stitched tightly in place.

I'm going to pin my Pom-Poms so I can wash the top and use the Pom-Poms throughout the year on other holiday tops. Thanks for a great and easy idea. It will be so easy to change the top seasonally. One more excuse ( I mean reason ) to buy beautiful fabric. : )